Month: August 2012

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Back to School Health Essentials

With children across America gearing up to begin the school year, what better time to explore some ideas to help ensure your child starts the school year healthy and happy. The following are 3 Ways to Start the School Year Healthy:

1. Backpack Safety 101

When people think Chiropractic and back to school, the first thing that usually comes up is backpacks. Here’s what you need to know – most backpack problems occur from excessive weight, inappropriate fit, and incorrect wearing of the pack. Your child should carry no more than 10-15% of their body weight in their school bags. When a heavy weight (such as a book-stuffed backpack) is incorrectly placed on the shoulders, the weight’s force can pull a child backwards. To compensate a child may bend forward at the hips or arch the back which can cause the spine to compress unnaturally.

If your child uses the traditional backpack – urge them to wear both straps (Here’s what to look for when picking a backpack: two wide, padded shoulder straps / padded back / waist belt / multiple compartments). Although it’s worth noting that messenger bags or purses – despite potential problems – are usually the better choice for children. When used correctly, the strongest muscles in the body, the back and abdominal muscles, support the weight of the packs. If not too heavy and if they are used correctly the weight is then evenly distributed across the body. Continue reading “Back to School Health Essentials”

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Are Baby Carriers Good for the Spine?

Many new parents are unsure when it comes to carrying their newborn, especially when it comes to how it may affect their baby’s development. As a Structural Chiropractor, the way I look at babywearing may be a little bit different – my focus is on how it may affect the baby’s developing spine and nervous system.

Lets start with the anatomy of a newborn. As you can see in the illustration below – the spine of an infant is c-shaped – this is natural until the baby begins to hold their head up, crawl and stand which will help develop the curves we have as adults.  One of the first options parents encounter for carrying their baby is (not surprisingly) the car seat.

Research by the International Chiropractic Pediatric Association (ICPA) shows that car seats result in  “restricted postural options which can impact your baby’s developing cranium and spine”. It seems that by keeping the spine in a c-shaped configuration, car seats can actually prevent and inhibit the natural curves from forming. In additon, babies can have a hard time acquiring adequate muscle strength to hold their heads up if they don’t get much of a chance to deal with gravity in an upright position. .Bottom line on car seats: an ergonomic carrier is superior to using a car seat when the baby is not in the car. Continue reading “Are Baby Carriers Good for the Spine?”

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The Chiropractic Advantage

I often explain to people who have never had any experience with chiropractors that we are essentially electricians for the human body. We focus on the communication pathway in the body – which is your nervous system. This is how your brain communicates with the rest of your body: The millions of messages are transported from your brain down your spine – where they exit and supply your muscles, organs, tissues and cells with essential information.

Think for a second about a luxury automobile. These vehicles utilize a central processor (a computer) that communicates with all areas of the vehicle. It knows if there is low tire pressure, when an oil change is needed and if there is a problem with the engine. Now what would happen if there was an interruption with that message? The result would be a less efficient automobile, or one that is not operating at an optimal level.

The same can be said for the body. This is the reason that Olympic athletes receive chiropractic care. It’s not for low back or neck pain, it is to ensure that they are operating at an optimal level – as efficient as humanly possible. After all, a fraction of a second can be the difference between a Gold or Silver medal. Luckily, There are now 28 chiropractors in the Olympic polyclinic – a multidisciplinary medical services team provided by the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games. Continue reading “The Chiropractic Advantage”